Drenthe, The Netherlands

We were–if you know us well you know this is usual–at least an hour too late to pick up the horse and the wagon somewhere in Drenthe. While Nuriye went to a nearby store to get things for on the way, some weird woman who worked at the horse-drawn wagon rental showed us how to “dress” the horse.

Nuriye came back from the store and the three of us left the horse-drawn wagon rental A.S.A.P.

I found it really fun to steer and even more fun to “switch gears” by hitting the horse! We “drove” for a couple of hours through the woods and arrived at a camping. Our horse, Pablo, was apparently really hungry because as soon as he was allowed to eat he didn’t stop anymore.

We had dinner and went to bed, but that wasn’t as easy as it sounds, because it was freezing! That’s why we were sleeping in our sleeping bags and under lots of blankets. But we still weren’t comfortable, because papa was too big for the bed and so had to lay diagonally!

Day 2. 28th of April 2013

We woke up due to the stupid rooster outside and of course Nuriye started complaining she was cold last night.

We had breakfast, dressed Pablo and left the camping.

We pretty much got lost as soon as we left, but that’s just a detail. A-hem!

Where were we?

When we found our route again we picknicked somewhere in the forest.

Nuriye was “resting”, but I don’t know how one can rest with a bottle of wine it one’s hand.

Sadly, we had to bring Nuriye to the bus-station after the picknick.

I was allowed to drive to the bus-station by papa, but I guess he wouldn’t have allowed me if he knew there was a market on the way and that it was really busy. Fact was, that we dropped Nuriye off pretty much in the center of the market. I started counting and we were upholding AT LEAST 12 cars!

We got back into the forest–without Nuriye–and right away got a call from Nuriye that she couldn’t find the bus-station! So we called a taxi for her.

We had a pine corn fight and went on. Because I knew we would have another fight sometime, I started collecting pine corns and I therefor got really angry at papa when he used one of MY pine corns.

We arrived at a camping, took a shower and had dinner. Papa put spaghetti on our plates. Then he figured out that he forgot the forks and said: “Didn’t I just have ’em?” And then he said: “oh, never mind!”

He put them on his plate and then put spaghetti on it so he couldn’t see them anymore! A-hem! Where were we?

We changed into pyamas, watched a movie and went to bed.

Day 3. 29th of April 2013

I woke up in two sleeping bags and 3 blankets papa apparently wrapped around me last night. I had breakfast inside the wagon because it was raining outside, but that meant that we had to put the table inside, which would leave practically no space to sit. Not the most comfortable breakfast I have ever endured.

When it stopped raining we dressed Pablo and continued our journey. We found out Pablo didn’t want to wear his equipment, because he started pulling on it and made those funny sounds horses can make and almost kicked papa.

At some point I jumped off the wagon to collect pine corns. But soon as I started I stopped again, because I saw a small turned-over ladder meant for getting in the wagon, which was in a perfect position to sit on. From that point on it was my private seat.

Within an hour of driving we were already halfway our planned route for the day, so we changed the route a little bit. I thought I knew where we were when we turned left at a certain moment, but when we came to the end of that road I appeared to be wrong. A-hem! Where were we?

We went to the supermarket to buy some food. I had to stay with the horse while licking my ice cream I had just bought. That turned out to be not such a good idea. It wanted to lick my ice cream! Grrrr! Papa came back and we went to the camping.

As soon as we got into the forest, we turned right on a certain road, but found out it was a bad idea because the road stopped not even 50 meters further.

Papa had to turn around to wagon because the horse went too far so it couldn’t turn around itself anymore.

After a few hours of driving we stopped, had lunch and watched a movie.

We found out our horse was or really stupid or a real treehugger, because it was walking around the same tree over and over so it got stuck because the chain was not long enough (!).

It’s really unfair! When I get lost I always end up in the middle of nowhere, but when papa gets lost he always ends up where he has to be, as he proved today once more. Unfair!

We came to the camping, had dinner and went to the forest nearby for a pine corn fight. When we came back, we brushed our teeth and went to bed thinking how much fun we had in the previous days, since this day was our last in the horse wagon.